I friend commented in another forum about my post, "Financial Crisis and Christian Contentment" with the following comment:
I read your blog...I think the fundamental problem with the financial markets is trust. There is none. All of these banks were playing hot potato with these unknown financial instruments and now they have no trust in the value of each other's assets or the people they have to deal with. Hence, no lending occurs.
I agree with your idolatry hypothesis on the household level, but I don't think it scales up. Even people like me, who have no debt and are good savers, are hurting in this economy.
It's a helpful comment. Here is perhaps the beginning of my response...
I agree that trust is a key issue, perhaps the key issue, as the whole economy runs on trust, but I think it does scale up as well as down. Sen. Obama said as much the 2nd debate with Sen. McCain (and Sen. McCain has basically said the same thing in other venues). Back in 2001 we were told to "go shopping" and we did, both as individuals and as a a nation. The government took on piles of debt and encouraged us to borrow our way out of recession. We bought couches and tvs, etc. with home equity, or if we didn't have that they let us borrow for it anyway. The recent "stimulus package" in my view is just more of the same: take out the national credit card so people can buy tvs and video games or toys. I don't know what to make of the current Wall Street bailout yet, but I'm deeply troubled by the degree to which we are a debtor nation.
That's the citizenship side. The other side of this for me is the ecclesiastical side. The Scriptures from beginning to end discourage the kind of reckless indebtedness we have been encouraged to undertake and for a variety of reasons, from the idolatry issue about which I wrote to the want of mercy. Theologically, both are huge issues, and the latter stems from the former. If one is consumed with riches (i.e., one's whole life and trust are built upon one's financial status) then riches or wealth (the Greek "mammon" encompasses all of this) is one's god. The 1 Tim 6 passage states what everyone knows, whether they're a Christian or not: you take none of your wealth with you past the grave. In addition to the idolatry issue is the related mercy issue. If a Christian (St. Paul was writing in particular to Christians.) is loaded down with debt he is unable to show hospitality and mercy. If, for example, a Christian gave in to the temptation to put a huge new 50" plasma tv on credit at Best Buy and the next day his neighbor loses his job and can't buy food, then the indebtedness at the very least impedes his ability to be of help to his neighbor. On the issue of materialism I am afraid that Christians have been just as guilty as non-Christians, and that is a tragedy. I won't command people outside the community of faith, but for the Baptized it's one thing to have the money and buy the big tv; it's another thing if you don't have it and you borrow effectively at your neighbor's expense.
My case is not particularly egregious, but I think quite frankly that I have sinned, and my family and neighbors are suffering the consequences. We borrowed money for "all the right reasons." I was going to be a pastor with a special expertise in missions, so we borrowed with the idea that it was "for the greater good." I think now that I took things a bit too much into my own hands. We should have approached the financing of my Ph.D. the way we later approached the funding of my son Brenainn's adoption costs: "Lord, if this adoption is your will, please have mercy on us and provide the resources."
Here's the short story of how the adoption funding went . . .
Two summers ago we needed $1,196 dollars to pay for the "home study" and state-required education class for prospective adoptive parents. So, we had a garage sale, and people from the congregation, along with other friends, gave us stuff to sell. Our quietly uttered prayer was, "Lord, it would be great if we could pay for half of the home study." Well, my wife worked her tail off and baked cookies and the kids help sell pop and all kinds of knicknaks for five and twenty-five cents a piece. After a long, exhausing weekend we added up the nickles and quarters, again, hoping for maybe $500.
Needed for home study and adoption education class: $1,196
Net garage sale proceeds: $1,200
That night I cried in front of my wife and children . . . and confessed that I doubted.
I could've just taken a loan, but with my grad school debt it was just the wrong thing to do. Like grad school, it would've been "for all the right reasons," but, to quote a friend, "we would've missed out on the miracle." Now, two years, several garage sales, lots of hours for my wife at a part-time job, and lots of donations later, the adoption costs of over $30,000, including our trip, are almost fully paid for. In two years God has provided the rough equivalent of my yearly salary.
"Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief." --Mark 9.24
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